Many modern tanks and other military vehicles, as well as some heavy utility vehicles (e.g. bulldozers, excavators, forestry equipments and/or other vehicles weighing generally more than 10,000 kg), are supported on the ground by a pair of tracks generally made of strong composite and preferably elastomeric materials. These tracks are also generally provided as endless bands even though tracks made of one or more segments are also used. Elastomeric tracks have many advantages over their conventional metallic counterparts. For instance, they are less noisy, they generate less vibration and they require less maintenance since they are not an assembly of a plurality of parts. Moreover, due to their elastomeric nature, elastomeric tracks are less likely to cause damages to roads or other structures on which they can travel.
However, elastomeric track can rupture or be otherwise damaged due to a defect in the material, wear and/or fatigue. A track may also be damaged by an object on which it travels. For instance, in the case of a military vehicle, a track may be damaged by a mine, a nearby explosion or a projectile. In all these instances, if the track is actually damaged, the affected vehicle is likely to be useless unless a repair is done in the field.
However, replacing a damaged track, directly in the field, with a new one is not always possible, especially if the damage occurred in hostile territory or in a location which is difficult to access. Furthermore, since some of the vehicles onto which elastomeric tracks are used may weight over sixty tons, replacing a track on such vehicles may require the presence of heavy lifting equipments. However, in certain circumstances, it may be difficult or even impossible to dispatch such heavy lifting equipments to the location of the affected vehicle.
There is thus a need to have a field-repair assembly for temporarily but suitably repairing a ruptured or otherwise damaged elastomeric track without generally interfering with the driving system of the track so that the vehicle can proceed, preferably on its own, to the nearest maintenance site where replacement or permanent repair of the track can be undertaken.